y
story. On our way home we came to the green fields that lie on this side
of the haunted house; a portion of it, on a risin' ground, is covered
with furz. Now listen--when we came to it he stood; 'Barney,' says he,
'there's a hare here; give me the dogs, Sambo and Snail; they'll have
sich a hunt as they never had yet, and never will have agin.'

"He then closed his eyes, raised his left foot, and dhrew it back
three times in the divil's name, pronounced some words that I couldn't
understand, and then said to me, 'Now, Barney, go down to that withered
furze, and as you go, always keep your left foot foremost; cough three
times, then kick the furze with your left foot, and maybe you'll see an
old friend o' yours.'

"Well, I did so, and troth I thought there was somethin' over me when I
did it; but--what 'ud you think?--out starts a white hare, and off went
Sambo and Snail after her, full butt. I have seen many a hard run, but
the likes o' that I never seen. If they turned her wanst they turned her
more than a dozen times; but where do you think she escaped to at last?"

"The Lord knows, Barney; where?"

"As heaven's above us, into the haunted house; and if the dogs were to
get a thousand guineas apiece, one of them couldn't be forced into it
afther her. They ran with their noses on her very scut, widin five or
six yards of it, and when she went into it they stood stock still, and
neither man nor sword could get them to go farther. But what do you
think Masther Harry said afther he had seen all this? 'Barney,' said he,
'I'm detarmined to spend a night in the haunted house before I'm much
ouldher; only keep that to yourself, and don't make a blowing horn of it
through the parish.' And what he said to me, I say to you--never breathe
a syllable of it to man or mortal. It'll be worse for you if you do. And
now, do you remember what Lanty Malony saw the other night? The
black man kissin' the white woman. Is it clear to yez now? The
_Shan-dhinne-dhuv_--_the Black Specthre_--kissin' Bet Harramount, the
white woman. There it is; and now you have it as clear as a, b, c."

Barney then retired to his bed, leaving the denizens of the kitchen in a
state which the reader may very well understand.

CHAPTER X. True Love Defeated.

Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin, in the absence of their daughter, held a very
agreeable conversation on the subject of Mrs. Lindsay's visit. Neither
Goodwin nor his wife was in the slightest degree selfish